Keeping memories on track
Museums, collectors proud to own railway artifacts
When you walk along the old rail line, east or west of Kentville, you’re never far from what once was Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) country.
In one sense, this is still railway country and the reminders are everywhere.
Along railway beds, that are now walking trails, you can find rusted steel rails. Some of the old trestle bridges are still standing. Other remnants of the railway, such as apple warehouses, are still found along the old line. Former train stations are now libraries and museums. An example is the Via Rail station, now a museum on aptly named Station Lane in Kentville. This is now the home of the Kentville Historical Society, a museum with a permanent railway exhibit.
Just up the street, the Kings Historical Society museum’s railway artifacts and memorabilia include iconic images taken by A. L. Hardy, who for a long time was the official DAR photographer. Railway tools and documents, such as old timetables and DAR clothing, make up the remainder of the museum’s collection. Berwick’s Apple Museum has a splendid railway exhibit featuring a miniature steam engine and other railway artifacts.
Private collectors aren’t far behind in keeping memories of the railway alive, too. After the railway shut down, not long after the last steam engine shunted down the line, the collection of railway artifacts began in earnest. It’s estimated there are more railway artifacts and memorabilia in the hands of private collectors than in all the Valley museums put together – despite the fact that in Middleton, its museum boasts it has the largest collection of railway memorabilia in Canada.
Kentville is the focal point for railway collectors. Looking back, we can see why. The railway’s headquarters were set up there (in what was the grandest railway station found anywhere in the Valley) along with roundhouses, turntables, freight sheds, sidings, coal towers and machine shops, all crowded together in an estimated 10 hectares at the west end of town.
Two museums in Kentville have collections of railway artifacts. Private collections abound in and around Kentville as well, and collectors the likes of Tony Kalkman, Jack Schofield, Cyril White and Louis Comeau have devoted years to preserving railway history.
Of the four, Kalkman has one of the largest collections of railway artifacts, estimated at last count well over a thousand. Kalkman started collecting railway memorabilia more than 30 years ago, around the time the rail lines were shutting down in the Valley. His residence has a mini-museum devoted to the railway.
Summing up what Kalkman has put together (which may be the largest private collection in Nova Scotia) most of what the railway required to keep the locomotives running and the stations open is represented. Kalkman even has a miniature engine in his collection.
Kalkman’s collection contains numerous historical documents, antique parlor car furnishings, tools, clocks, locks, telegraph keys, telephones, dishes, silverware, lanterns and whistles, many of them stamped with railway logos.
Of the four collectors mentioned, Schofield and White are the only ones with family ties to the railway. Schofield is a railway veteran who comes from a railway family. White’s father (Cyril senior) served on the railway for 40 years as an engineer. White himself worked on the railway as a telegraphist for five years, serving as a relief agent in stations up and down the Valley.
While White’s collection was put together in honour of his father, he looks upon it also as a tribute to the railway, and as a “way to remind people of our railway history.”
His collection can be viewed by anyone entering his enterprise in Kentville where a 1/16th scale model of a steam locomotive dominates the lobby.
The scale model was handmade from scrap material (some of it from the DAR yards) and is fully functional. The model represents the de Razilly, a locomotive that ran
on the DAR line in the Valley from 1934 to 1956. It was a custom on the railway to number and name locomotives. the names usually associated with historical people and places. The de Razilly, number 1090, is named after Isaaz de Razilly, a leader in the French colonization of Lahave and Port Royal.
As well as the de Razilly, a collection of mint condition lanterns, telephones, caps, keys and watches grace the White collection. Standing out is the bell from a steam locomotive that was scrapped circa 1960 on the arrival of diesel engines. The railway donated the bell to a church in Canning where for years it tolled from the belfry, inviting people to services. White added the bell to his collection when the church closed and along with the de Razilly, it is one of his most prized collectibles.
During his 40-year career with the railway, Schofield worked with CP Rail and the Hantsport-Windsor Railway.
“I started collecting memorabilia right from the start of working on the railway,” he says.
Schofield specializes in collecting glass and metal railway lamps; he has more than 90. He has also turned his basement into a miniature museum and various DAR and CP Rail photographs, tools, telephones, glassware, locks and other artifacts are on display. His rarest artifacts are two 1890s switch locks which once were used everywhere around the railyards but are difficult to find today.
While he has no family connections with the DAR, the author of the book Historic Kentville thinks of himself as an “amateur railway collector.” While Comeau specializes in collecting Kentville memorabilia, of the 14,000 plus collectibles on the town listed in his database, many are connected to the railway.
Some of the 600 photographs in Comeau’s collection are railway images, photographs taken by A. L. Hardy who, as mentioned, worked for the DAR with his camera.
Comeau describes his collection as “railway ephemera,” a rare assortment of printed material, the paperwork that kept the railway rolling down the line.